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Lions send out warning to next year’s opponents
Oak Park, 10/22/12--Fenwick's Samantha Pethokoukis hits the ball past Lyons Township's Jessi Skonning and Catherine King. Fenwick High School hosted Lyons Township High School in an IHSA girls' volleyball regional game Tuesday night. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 2, 2012 6:35AM
OAK PARK — Lyons exceeded expectations this year.
A team that reached the supersectionals last year had only three seniors return. The goals going into the season were modest, to say the least, for a group including two freshmen and six sophomores.
“Our approach this season was to take things one game at a time. We really didn’t worry about where we finished in conference or anything like that, we just wanted to win as many games as we could,” said junior Catherine King.
And the Lions did win games, 20 to be exact. The 20-16 record has the Lions reflecting on all the positives of a season that saw them reach the Fenwick regional final, where they lost to St. Ignatius.
“We worked really well together all season long. We came together more than I thought we would and that was a major reason behind the success we had,” said King.
According to sophomore Jessi Skonning, the low expectations might have served as an advantage.
“We knew we weren’t going to be as good as last year. We accepted that, and I think that was a good thing,” she said. “We were able to keep a positive attitude through the ups and downs and at the end of the day we knew we had the potential to still be pretty good.”
King says that the best thing about this season is that it will serve as a springboard for next year.
“We’re only going to get better moving forward. We have the bulk of our team coming back next year and we have to take advantage of that. And that starts with working hard in the offseason. We have to develop even more chemistry in the offseason,” said King.
Skonning is also optimistic about next year.
“We’re going to be older and more experienced. All I can say is, watch out for us,” said Skonning.
